What is the Ethereum Pectra upgrade?
The Ethereum Pectra upgrade enhances the network's scalability, efficiency, and staking flexibility.
- Pectra expands storage capacity for layer-2 solutions while reducing fees.
Ethereum Improvement Proposals that are part of the Pectra upgrade
The Pectra upgrade introduces several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to enhance wallet usability, staking, and scalability. These include:
1. EIP-7702 temporarily functions as smart contracts for externally owned accounts (EOAs), simplifying transactions and replacing the now-deprecated EIP-3074.
2. EIP-7251 increases the maximum stake per validator from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, which helps reduce congestion.
3. EIP-7002 improves the process of validator exits, making it more efficient for staking providers.
4. EIP-7742 enhances Layer-2 scalability by doubling transaction throughput, increasing blob capacity, and lowering fees.
5. EIP-2537 introduces improvements for cryptographic efficiency.
6. EIP-2935 provides a mechanism for storing historical block hashes on-chain.
7. EIP-6110 simplifies the process of validator deposits.
Major Features of the Pectra Upgrade
1. Account abstraction
- With the Pectra upgrade, Ethereum will leverage a concept called account abstraction to enhance user experience.
- One of the benefits of account abstraction is that you won’t have to keep ETH just to pay for gas fees. Instead, you can pay with other tokens, like USDC or DAI, making it more convenient.
- The update will also allow third-party services to sponsor your gas fees, meaning you could pay little to no fees in some cases.
2. Smart contract efficiency
Through Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) like EIP-7692, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) will become more efficient, speeding up smart contract execution.
3. Improvements for validators
- Pectra will introduce flexible staking withdrawals (EIP-7002) and increase the stake limit of validators from 32 to 2048 ETH (EIP-7251).
- This change will make the system more flexible and efficient, especially for people or companies who manage large amounts of ETH.
4. Verkle Trees for better data management
- Pectra will introduce Verkle trees, which will allow nodes to store less blockchain data.
- This upgrade will make the Ethereum network faster and more scalable by improving how data is stored and verified.
- Verkle trees are a new way to organize data that’s more efficient than what Ethereum uses now.
- They help reduce the amount of storage needed and speed up transaction processing.
5. Layer 2 solutions and PeerDAS
- Pectra will improve these L2 solutions by introducing Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), a technology that makes it easier to handle data for these L2 networks.
- Essentially, PeerDAS will help make Layer 2 even cheaper and faster, which is great news for anyone who uses Ethereum-based apps or does a lot of transactions.
Benefits of Pectra upgrade
1. Enhanced Validator Flexibility
Validators can now stake any amount between 32 and 2048 ETH. This not only changes reward dynamics but also simplifies validator management.
2. Streamlined Staking Operations
New mechanisms allow stake owners to trigger exits and deposits directly from the execution layer, reducing delays and complexity.
3. Programmable EOAs - Smart Accounts
EIP-7702 brings a new level of functionality to Externally Owned Accounts, like standard Ethereum wallets by temporarily enabling them to execute smart contract logic during a transaction.
- This opens up use cases such as transaction batching, gas sponsorship, and delegation to alternative key schemes.
4. Advanced Developer Tools
With the introduction of efficient cryptographic precompiles e.g for the BLS12-381 curve and extended blob capabilities, developers have new avenues to build cost-effective and innovative dApps.
5. Improved Inter-Layer Communication
A unified framework for moving requests like deposits, withdrawals, and consolidations between Eth1 and the beacon chain makes the network more efficient.
